


Flickering Embers

by DreamingIce



Series: 2012 iPod Shuffle ficlets [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Family Issues, Gen, Insanity, Introspection, iPod challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-22
Updated: 2014-10-22
Packaged: 2018-02-22 04:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2494265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamingIce/pseuds/DreamingIce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A couple of snapshots into the heads of Fire Nation royalty. The good and the ugly. Zuko. Ozai. </p><p>Originally written as part of a multifandom challenge in 2012 - 10 songs from my iPod on shuffle=5 ficlets from various fandoms each month. Every month (Ending with 60 ficlets across some 30 odd fandoms!).</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Stranger in a Familiar Land

**Author's Note:**

> Character: Prince Zuko  
> Timeframe: Pre-"Day of the Black Sun"  
> Musical Theme: This is Where it Gets Complicated – Doctor Who Soundtrack (series 5)
> 
> From January Set

Walking around the palace grounds again was something he still had not readjusted to yet. He pretended it was nothing, because despite Azula's strange generosity in regard to him, he knew she would see it as a weakness which she could exploit.

She was losing her mind. He'd always wondered as a child, but that was the joking contempt that a brother had for the antics of a younger sister. That had now been replaced by a sinking dread.

Why couldn't he have been born into a simpler family? One that didn't have a history of backstabbing and what was shaping up being a sizable streak of insanity combined with too much power.

Wandering back towards the quiet spot in the gardens where he had been with Mai earlier, Zuko tried to school his thoughts into some form of order. He had all ready realised it was time for him to leave, but the details needed more work. He still only had a vague idea of how he was going to be able to get Uncle out of his imprisonment, and where they would go after that.

A sparkle caught his eye in the grass. Mai's hair slide winked back up at him, and Zuko's stomach twisted in guilt. His departure would not go down well with her, but at least her rage should protect her from Azula taking it out on her.

Grasping the slide gently in his hands, he prayed that Mai would distance herself from Azula before she too fell victim to the Princess' madness.


	2. Inferno

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Characters: Firelord Ozai  
> Timeframe: Pre Sozin's Comet  
> Theme: Prince of Darkness – Immediate Music
> 
> From March Set.

There is a crackling under his skin, he can feel it down to his bones.

It's the approaching comet. The power is building in his system and he craves more. The comet itself is still a couple of days away, but there is a crackling in his blood calling for destruction.

Idly, Ozai wonders how Fire Lord Sozin managed to be content with the mere power of firebending under one sun, after experiencing the exhilaration of the power of a thousand suns. Can one really be content with the ordinary after experiencing the extraordinary?

The thought is brushed aside. Everything would change with the comet. The Earth Kingdom peasants will be decimated, the world pacified. And as to the Avatar, well, no doubt the idiot child would challenge him. He will be the one to finish the work his great-grandfather started in destroying the Air Nomads.

And the destruction of the little group of friends would be easy enough. That weakling son of his would certainly be no challenge.

Ozai's eyes glanced far into the distance, not seeing the horizon, but instead his new world.

A new order built from ashes in his image, the Phoenix King.


End file.
